Lie to Me (Pearl Island Trilogy #4)(24)
“A tad possessive, eh?”
“Not of her, but of the luck she brought him with his business dealings.” When he gave her a puzzled look, she explained. “Marguerite was a good luck charm. That’s why so many men wanted to possess her.”
“That sounds like quite a story.”
“Oh, it is,” she assured him. “I’ll happily regale you with it later. Right now, though, I need to get back to work.”
“Of course.” He looked about, noting the comfortable sofa and chairs and an antique armoire that had been converted into an entertainment center. In the far corner, he spotted a dainty writing desk.
“The password to get online is pearlisland,” she told him. “All one word, lowercase.”
“Got it.” He nodded, holding his computer bag a bit tighter against him. He didn’t even want to open his laptop until she’d left the room since he used the Vortal logo as his desktop image. “Thanks.”
“Can I get you anything?” she asked. “We probably have some pastries left over from breakfast. And there’s always a pitcher of iced tea in the fridge.”
“No, I’m good.”
“Okay, then. I’ll leave you to it.” Turning, she left the room.
He waited until she’d disappeared completely, which helped his brain switch back into work mode. Eager to see if Zeke’s claim was true, he crossed the room in large strides. His hands fumbled with excitement as he pulled out his laptop, hand set, and head gear.
The whole team had been pushing themselves for months, trying to finish their newest, most ambitious version yet. Zeke, his head coder, kept saying he was close, but each test ended in frustration that had sent more than one keyboard crashing against a wall.
Luc had offered to help, but Zeke threw a fit every time, like a temperamental artist. Backing off had nearly killed Luc, but he’d managed. To a point. He’d only glanced over Zeke’s work when he was sure he wouldn’t get caught, finding it ridiculous that he had to tiptoe so lightly. Vortal was his, for Pete’s sake. He had every right to trample through the entire program, putting his own personal stamp on any piece of code he wanted.
Out of respect for his team, he’d forced himself to refrain.
Last night, however, the frustrated programmer had grudgingly asked Luc to take a peek. Seizing the opening, Luc had stayed up all night, meticulously picking through miles of code, experimenting and tweaking. Nothing worked. Or maybe his brain had just been too distracted with thoughts of Chloe.
By the time the faint light of dawn crept around the edges of the blackout curtains in his hotel room, he’d been nodding off at his keyboard. He’d tried one last tweak, but exhaustion had kept him from testing the result. The process took too long. He’d decided to grab a nap and check it when he could focus.
The nap had turned into several hours of coma-like sleep. When his phone roused him, Zeke’s shout blasted him awake. “Dude! You nailed it. I think you frickin’ nailed it!”
“What? Seriously?” Luc had stumbled to his computer to see for himself, only to discover Zeke had changed the password to the online shared folder. “Hey, you locked me out. Let me back in.”
“No way!” Zeke had argued. “I’m not done testing. You’ll get your turn when I’m ready.”
“Have you forgotten who owns this company?” Luc had said in a calm but ominous tone.
“Have you forgotten who’s the God of Coding that came up with this idea?” Zeke had countered.
Luc hadn’t pointed out that he, in fact, was the one who had started the brainstorming session that led the team rushing down this ambitious path. Mentioning that would only challenge Zeke’s claim to grandeur.
“Fine,” Luc had grumbled. “But you call me the second I can get back in.”
“Only if the blue holes are really gone,” Zeke had insisted. “I haven’t worked through the whole world yet.”
“No way am I waiting that long. Call me the second you’re reasonably sure.”
Which was what Zeke had just done.
With his computer set up and online, Luc slipped on the headset, adjusted the mic, and opened the folder. As the file loaded, the opening soundtrack began to play. It started softly, like otherworldly bells heard through the colorful mist on the screen. The sound built to a crescendo just as the portal burst through the fog.
He cast a quick glance over his shoulder. Reassured he was alone, he turned back to the image of the very item that had brought him to Galveston. The dazzling graphic gave him a tug of need to hold the real object in his hands again, to feel the hum of its magic before handing it to Mémère.
On the screen, light glinted off the gold frame of twisting vines surrounding a vortex that seemed as vast as the universe, spinning slowly, hypnotically. Nestled amid the gold vines, colorful gemstones gleamed as the portal waited for him to make his decision: a blue sapphire for Pirates of the High Seas, an emerald for Wizards and Warriors, a ruby for Vampires in New Orleans, and citrine for Operation Middle East. The colored stones were one of the few departures from the real pendant, which had only diamonds.
After another look over his shoulder to be sure Chloe hadn’t returned, he moved the cursor over the blue sapphire to select the world he wanted to test first, Pirates of the High Seas. He found it faintly amusing that his favorite world in Vortal involved one more link between his life and Chloe’s, since many of Galveston’s pirates had moved to the island after getting kicked out of New Orleans.